


binding up wounds

by handschuhmaus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 04:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16033283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/pseuds/handschuhmaus
Summary: TBCI won't promise but I'm planning to try to get some grandpa!Dooku goodness in too...





	binding up wounds

"But--" Anakin shuddered as another blast rocked the ship.

" _Don't_ try to rescue me, Anakin," Obi-Wan ordered his padawan. It was not entirely a decision based on Jedi rules; he'd tried to consult the Force, but that seemed all knotted up and inscrutable. Pandering to the boy's sense of attachment it might be, but he was fairly certain Anakin Skywalker, former slave, would be devastated if enslaved again. Him, well, the Order would come to his aid once he sent out the emergency message, even though the combatants were working to jam his comm signal.

"Y-yes," Anakin sobbed, and the comm went silent on Obi-Wan's end. Where was he going to go? He couldn't very well go back to the Jedi saying he was obeying his master's orders not to rescue him; he'd probably be thrown out. But where _could_ he go? Not back to Tatooine—Gardulla and her ilk would quickly re-enslave him somehow. But Naboo! He was a hero on Naboo and Queen Padme and also the Chancellor, Palpatine and most of the other people on the planet seemed to like him. Even Jar-Jar, though he probably wouldn't prove that helpful, wouldn't try to harm him.

He set course for the watery planet and hoped he'd find some help.

* * *

Darth Sidious was not one for leisurely convalescence, and had probably exacerbated his lingering illness just now in attempting a Sith meditation and channeling technique. He was not Plagueis, who had attained some proficiency in healing with the Force, and unfortunately even Sith were not impervious to the effects of overwork. Considering that the Senate was currently in recess and he was ill, with a recalcitrant virus exacerbated by the pollution on Coruscant, everyone had told Chancellor Palpatine to go recover at home on Naboo. 

For once he had yielded, although being in the Lake District again had him in poor temper, dredging up unwanted memories of the past. He was about to contact someone, perhaps the queen, and ask if he couldn't stay in Theed or something, where he would at least not be alone with memories of Cosinga. But instead his comm rang.

"Chancellor, there's a young unaccompanied Jedi Padawan at Theed Spaceport."

_And how in the Force had that come about?_

There was a muffled sound as if someone was talking to the caller. "Oh, so it's Anakin Skywalker, and he is asking if either you or Queen Amidala—who is at a political summit—could help him find a place to say."

"Oh, Anakin! Send him to my house in the Lake District. It's far too much room for an old bachelor like myself and I always enjoy the company of a Hero of Naboo."

"As you say, Chancellor. We'll send him on the next train, once he's eaten."

* * *

"My boy, are you alright?" Palpatine asked instinctively, when he came into the foyer of his ancestral home, where Anakin had been delivered (before he had quite been alerted). He knelt to see him better, suppressing a wince as his knee creaked.

"Think I'm sick. Obi-Wan is captured," Anakin mumbled in a voice which suggested that he was at the limit of his tolerance for a cruel and demanding war. The politician catalogued a badly scraped arm and several other possible injuries.

"I recommend a warm bath to begin with. And did you eat at the station?"

Anakin remained silent. 

"My boy, Anakin, I wish to take good care of you. That includes feeding you." Palpatine was reminding himself of Damask, somehow, which was not altogether a comfortable feeling.

"Couldn't eat it. Kept gagging." Anakin admitted in a very small voice.

"Then we'll order you something from the kitchen. I'm not sure the cooking droid is gourmet quality, but the food usually tastes nice enough," the Sith gave him a small, reassuring smile.

"Okay," allowed the boy, and let Palpatine lead him to a comprehensive refresher with a capacious bathtub.

**Author's Note:**

> TBC
> 
> ~~I won't promise but I'm planning to try to get some grandpa!Dooku goodness in too...~~


End file.
